SRM Expands Practice into Europe

SRM (Strategic Resource Management), an independent advisory firm for
financial institutions, is expanding its consulting services to Europe.
For 25 years, SRM has provided North American banks and credit unions
with the expertise, benchmarks and specialty skill sets required to
lower costs, enhance revenues and establish a competitive advantage in
the marketplace.

The dynamic nature of banking in Europe and the United Kingdom –
including the EU’s PSD2 directive, UK’s Open Banking Initiative, rise of
challenger banks and explosion of specialised FinTech solutions – has
created a need for SRM’s expertise. The firm is already engaging with
organisations in these territories, providing the objective, strategic
and quantifiable counsel needed to develop the strategies, build the
roadmaps, select the partners and negotiate the contracts that drive
their technology and infrastructure decision-making process.

SRM Europe has seen these needs materialise in traditional consulting
services and around areas such as business process reengineering,
operational efficiency, optimisation of organisational structures,
vendor selection and contract negotiation. Additionally, SRM Europe has
seen an interest in its expertise specific to the business implications
from new technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning
and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) as financial institutions explore
the roles of these technologies in making them more efficient and cost
effective.

Neil Whittaker, MBA, has taken on the role as managing director for SRM
Europe. Born in Wolverhampton in the West Midlands, Whittaker joined The
Life Guards, the most senior and prestigious regiment in the British
Army, at age 16. After 11 years in the military, he spent the next
decade in banking, working for some of the biggest institutions in the
world and in positions such as Director of Barclays Bank. He also
attended some of the best universities including Cranfield and Yale.
Whittaker has since spent the past 13 years consulting for major global
institutions.

He commented, “Many financial services organisations here have seen
their cost of compliance, simply the cost of being in business, increase
significantly in the past 10 years. Meaning, their spend on
discretionary items like a digital agenda or becoming more
customer-centric has dwindled. We can help these entities release
savings from within the organisation, resulting in investment
opportunities that better their business.”

David Varney, most recently with MasterCard, and Richard Bissett, both
former Barclays senior players, have also joined SRM Europe as
consulting directors. Combined with Whittaker, the team has more than 70
years of collective banking and financial services and technology
expertise. SRM’s European headquarters are located at 8 – 10 Hill
Street, Mayfair, London.

Brad Downs, CEO of SRM, commented, “SRM has evolved its U.S. model over
time to address specific market and market segment needs, and we will do
the same in Europe. While our European services will not replicate our
approach in North America, we do believe that many of the strengths of
each will complement the other. The key to the success of both is a
tenacious commitment to only entering into relationships where the
benefit to both parties is clear.”

About SRM

SRM (Strategic Resource Management) has been trusted by more than 700
financial institutions to identify strategies that strengthen their
competitive advantage, lower costs and enhance revenues. SRM maintains a
reputation of vast industry and subject matter expertise, use of
data-driven benchmark data and a proven proficiency in negotiating with
vendors. Visit www.srmcorp.com
and www.srmeurope.com
for more information and follow the company @SRMCorp.